Unofficial TalkTalk Broadband Setup Guide

by Phil Jones

Praise for this article. Nov 2013

A reader calling himself 'Matt' sent me this:

I spent some time working in ADSL tech support for a small ISP (not my finest hour) and have likewise done some freelance computer fixing myself, and your article is excellent -- it goes into technical details without swamping a user and provides helpful pictures throughout. I rather suspect TalkTalk support will be using it, as I know damn well I raided similar material to give to first-line support staff.

Update! April 2012

This article is about using the MT882 router/modem distributed by
TalkTalk in the "Broadband Start Up Pack" until at least November
2008. Since I wrote this article, it seems TalkTalk have greatly improved
the time it takes to queue on the phone to speak to the helpline.
TalkTalk have changed the router/modem they're supplying, and in some
cases they have started offering the BT Infinity-based higher speed
broadband service. Having said all that, the article is still a
useful guide so I am leaving it here.

Introduction

Hi, I am Phil Jones.
Have you
subscribed to TalkTalk Broadband? Have you received the "Let's get
plugged in" TalkTalk Broadband Start Up Pack? Are you having trouble
getting it to work for the first time? Are you using someone else's
Internet
connection in an attempt to find some help, and then come
across this page?

It appears that TalkTalk's customer service leaves,
ahem, something to
be desired. I am a freelance computer fixer for home users. I
install broadbrand for a living. I am not associated with any
particular broadband supplier. I am
nothing to do with TalkTalk, but I have set up broadband for many
people, sometimes using TalkTalk Broadband. I
will
tell you how to do it
yourself, without the need to call TalkTalk's helpline as far
as possible. If there
is anything I could explain clearer please let me know, contact form
below.

All broadband Internet Service Providers that
use a conventional phone line (eg Demon, BT Internet, Nildram,
Madasafish, etc) work in the same way as TalkTalk. So if you are using
another ISP, you might still find this article useful as an example.

Caution

Paul King wrote pointing out that the TalkTalk supplied equipment could
be unsuitable if you have young children.
The mains adapter could potentially come apart while
plugged in to a live electrical socket, leaving, in Paul's words: "live
terminals 'semi-hidden', but if you've got kids, epescially real
younguns, they'll find a way of poking something in... that's why
sockets have a guard in them that's moved by the earth pin on a plug...
i remember as a 4 y/o (35 years ago) poking a wire into a socket &
switching it on & blowing the main fuse (I was lucky!) All UK
coins, except a £1 coin, will fit in the grooves & make
contact with the terminals on the plug part of the split adapter...
kids love playing with coins & putting them into 'slots'".

Most common faults

Permanently save your user name and password into the SmartAX
MT882 router/modem.

Check the SNR Margin is in the acceptable range.

Below I have done my best to describe, step-by-step, how to use the
TalkTalk Broadband Start Up Pack. Read on and I hope it will help.

What you need

Stop! Put down that "Connect & Go" CD! Fortunately, you do not need
to use it. If you do use it, well, it shouldn't cause any real harm,
but all it does is burden the computer with extra software that doesn't
have to be there. Also, if the helpline
doesn't help or doesn't answer, as I believe can be the case, then you
have to do it yourself. Follow my procedure to do it
manually, checking as we go along, and hopefully learning something
useful along the
way. You do not need the USB cable, the CD or the instruction
sheet that comes in the "Broadband Start Up Pack" box. The "minimum PC
specification" only applies to the use of the "Connect & Go" CD; if
the CD is not used, then you can safely ignore the stated minimum
specification. You do need:

BT or TalkTalk telephone line rental.

An NTE5 Master Socket.
The Master Socket is the point where the
telephone line comes into the house. The Master Socket remains BT or
TalkTalk property, depending upon whoever sends you a bill for line
rental. There are two sorts of Master Socket. The modern NTE5
type is best. Behind the User Removable Panel there is another socket
called the Test Socket. The Test Socket disconnects everything inside
the house and connects directly to the outside line. The Test Socket is
tremendously useful for troubleshooting. The old style lacks the Fixed
Front and the Test Socket. The old style should work but is not
recommended. If you have the old
style Master Socket, the telephone company will change it for the NTE5
but this service now costs over £100. An independent telephone
engineer should charge less than this.

TalkTalk broadband activated on the telephone line. The date when
you should be able to use the broadband service for the first time is
called the Commencement Date.

The TalkTalk Broadband Start Up Pack.

Any computer with an Ethernet socket. Here I
illustrate using a Windows XP based PC with Internet
Explorer 7. Any operating system can be used that supports Ethernet,
such as Windows 98, Windows Vista, Windows 2000, Mac OS 9, Mac OS X,
GNU/Linux, BSD, Amiga OS, etc.

Any web browser program. Given Windows, the version of Internet
Explorer is not important, so it does not matter whether you have
Internet Explorer 6 or Internet Explorer 7. Alternative web
browsers such as Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla SeaMonkey, Opera, Safari
and Konqueror also work.

If you don't have items 1 and 2 more than 28 days from the end of the
month you were given in TalkTalk's online "Availability Checker", then
you are allowed to cancel all of your TalkTalk services completely at
no charge. Refer to Section 11.13 of your TalkTalk contract.

Overview: How it works

This is best explained with a diagram.

Let's look through this diagram, reading from left to right.

The PC is connected via Ethernet network cable to the TalkTalk
supplied MT882 router/modem. This is called the Local
Area Network
(LAN). A LAN is a private in-home or in-office network that is
not accessible directly from the outside Internet. The Local Area
Network uses a method of communication called Transfer Control
Protocol / Internetworking Protocol (TCP/IP).

Every computer on the LAN needs a unique Internetworking
Protocol (IP) address in order to communicate; this is called
the Client IP. An IP address is
a number consisting of four parts called octets
divided by dots. Each octet is a number from 0 to 254. For example,
192.168.1.1 is a valid IP address. IP addresses beginning 192 or 10 are
not used
on the Internet so they can be used on a LAN instead. Each Client IP is
provided
automatically by the MT882's built-in Dynamic Host Configuration
Protocol (DHCP) server.

Each computer on the LAN needs to know the Default
Gateway IP address. The Default Gateway is the MT882's IP
address on
the LAN side. The Default Gateway address is provided automatically to
the computers on the LAN by the MT882's built-in DHCP server. Note that
computers on the LAN do not communicate directly with the outside
world. They simply send all their requests to the MT882's Default
Gateway and the MT882 takes it from there.

The MT882 is connected with an RJ-11 cable to the ADSL socket on
the microfilter.

The telephone handset is connected with a standard phone cable to
the phone socket on the microfilter.

The microfilter is
plugged in to the Master Socket.

The
MT882's modem function connects to the local telephone exchange.
This is called the Asynchronous Digital
Subscriber Line (ADSL)
connection. The LINK light on the MT882 turns green when the ADSL link
is established.

The MT882 is further connected to the Internet Service
Provider (ISP) Talk Talk for the Internet connection. This is called
the Point to
Point Protocol (PPP)
connection and the LINK light turns orange when the PPP link is
established. The broadband connect username and password provided in
the TalkTalk welcome booklet is used by the MT882 during the PPP
transaction. If successful, TalkTalk gives the MT882 its external IP address. This is the number
beginning with 89 and the MT882 needs that to communicate with the rest
of the world. Everything from the external interface of the MT882 to
the TalkTalk ISP and beyond is called the Wide
Area Network (WAN).

Step one: ADSL synchronisation

Do this when you have been told that your broadband service is ready to
use. This step does not
require a computer.

For the line which has been broadband enabled, unplug every analogue
telephone device (phone
handset, fax machine, dial-up modem, Sky Television Digital Box) from
the phone
wall sockets. Remember to unplug Sky Television Digital Box,
if you have one, because the digital box
counts as a telephone handset.

Plug the UK wall socket adapter into the power adapter.

Plug the power adapter into the electricity wall socket.

Plug the SmartAX MT882 into the power adapter.

Plug the RJ-11 cable into the ADSL socket on the MT882.

Plug the other end of the RJ-11 cable into the ADSL socket on the
microfilter.

Plug the microfilter into the Master Socket.

Turn on the MT882 using the power button on the back at the left
side.

All the lights on the MT882 will light briefly. This checks
that they work. For the next 15 seconds, the LAN and USB lights will be
lit. Then they will go out and you will be left with the Power light
only. Now wait another 30 seconds. The LINK light should then start
flashing quickly for about 3 seconds, then go steady green. Hurrah! You
have ADSL synchronisation. If it fails to remain steady, or
never starts flashing, then boo, we must find out what is wrong. If the
light comes on briefly green and then starts flashing again, this is
called retrying. Let it try again, it may need two or three attempts
before the light goes green and stays on.

The LINK light must be on and steady before Internet access
will work. If it does not go steady, remove the panel from the front of
the NTE5 Master Socket. Inside you will find another socket, this is
the Test Socket. Plug the microfilter into the Test Socket. The
purpose of the Test Socket is to bypass everything inside the house
and connect directly to the outside line. If it still doesn't go
steady, read on to find out what to do.

Step two: From the computer to the MT882

The items you need are:

Ethernet cable.

Ethernet socket on your computer.

All new PCs and Apple Macs have an Ethernet socket built in. If your
computer doesn't have an Ethernet socket, no problem, you just need to
have one put in. For desktop PCs, you need a "10/100 PCI Ethernet Card"
which you can find in electronics and computer shops for £15 or
less. For laptops, you need a "10/100 PCMCIA Ethernet Card" which costs
under £30 usually. It is also possible to get a USB Ethernet
Adapter (USB stands for Universal Serial Bus) which works in both
desktop and laptop PCs. To install the
Ethernet card, follow the instructions that come with the product, if
unsure, ask someone to do it for you.

Plug the Ethernet cable into the Ethernet socket on the back of the
MT882. Plug the Ethernet cable into the Ethernet socket on your
computer. The LAN light on the MT882 should come on, and a
corresponding light next to the Ethernet socket on the computer should
also come on. This is called the physical link. With some computers,
the LAN light comes on before you turn the computer on.

Turn the computer on now. With some computers, the LAN light comes on
while the computer starts up. Be sure the LAN light is on, then
continue to the next step.

Local Area Network TCP/IP configuration

The settings are:

Local Area Network connection: Enabled

Obtain IP address automatically: Yes or Use DHCP

Obtain Domain Name System (DNS) server addresses automatically:
Yes or Use DHCP

Obtain Default Gateway address automatically: Yes or Use DHCP

The good news is that the above are the default settings in
most computers. Provided the network card is correctly installed, you
don't usually have to change anything. How you set these values depends
upon the operating system. We will look at Windows NT/2000/XP, Windows
98 and Mac.

Windows NT/2000/XP

Click Control Panel,
Network, Local Area Connection, make sure Local Area Connection is
enabled, then right-click on Local Area Connection, click Properties,
Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), "Obtain an IP
address automatically" and "Obtain DNS server addresses automatically",
OK, OK again.

Windows 98

Click the entry that says "TCP/IP" followed by the name of the
network card eg "TCP/IP > Asustek Broadcom 440x", then Properties.

On the IP Address tab, make sure "Obtain an IP address
automatically" is selected, then click OK.

Click Start menu, then click Run.

Type winipcfg and click OK.

Click the drop-down box and change "PPP Adapter" to the name of
the computer's Local Area Network adapter, in the example above it's
AsusTek Broadband 440x, below it's Intel PRO Adapter.

The IP Address and other fields should be filled in. If not,
click Release, then Renew and the computer will try again to get an IP
address from the MT882.

Mac OS X

In System Preferences choose Network.

Set Built-In Ethernet TCP/IP to Configure: Using DHCP.

The IP Address should change to reflect the address given to the
computer by the MT882, eg 192.168.1.3.

Mac OS 9

Use the TCP/IP control panel.

Set Connect via: to "Ethernet built-in".

Set Configure: to "Using DHCP Server".

Testing

Now it's time to make sure that it works. This is done using the "ping"
utility which means "are you there?" Note that no Internet connection
is needed to carry out the following four steps. The following four
steps test communication across the Local Area Network only.

Start by pinging yourself. Type ping
127.0.0.1 and press Enter. 127.0.0.1 is called the Local Loopback
address. Every computer on the Internet has this Local Loopback
address, and it allows the computer to communicate with itself via
TCP/IP (Transfer Control Protocol / Internetworking Protocol). Replies
here means the computer's TCP/IP function is working. That is a good
sign because TCP/IP is required to access the Internet.

Next, ping the Client IP of the computer's own Ethernet network
card. This
verifies that the computer's
internal network adapter can access itself on the Local Area Network.
Type ping
192.168.1.X where X is the last octet of the Ethernet Adapter Local
Area Connection IP address given above, for example,
3. Therefore, for example, type ping
192.168.1.3, then press Enter on the keyboard. If you have Windows
XP and you get "PING: transmit failed, error code 5", download and run Winsock XP Fix
which worked for me.

Next, ping the Default Gateway address, which is the IP address
of the MT882 on the Local Area Network. Type ping 192.168.1.1
and press Enter on the
keyboard. Now you should have:

You should see the LAN light on
the MT882 flash in response. Success means the basic communication
from
the computer to the MT882 is working.

Other Local Area Network settings (Windows)

Type controlinetcpl.cpl and press Enter on
the
keyboard. Click the Connections tab. You don't need anything in
"Dial-up and
Virtual Private Network settings". If you do have something in there,
choose "Never
dial a connection". Click LAN settings, turn all the options off, click
OK,
then click OK again to close the Internet Options control panel.

Step three: ADSL status

The next step is to use the MT882's status page to double-check your
ADSL
synchronisation. If the LINK light is on and
steady then that is an excellent start. If not, the status page will
help explain why, and you need to do this before you phone TalkTalk for
further help.

Start your computer's web browser. On the Address line or Location bar,
enter the Default Gateway address you pinged earlier, 192.168.1.1.
This should take you to the MT882's administration page. You should be
asked for an administration username and password. Enter username admin
and password admin. Note that this username and password is set
by the manufacturer of the MT882, not TalkTalk. The administration
username and password is only for controlling the MT882. It is not to
be confused with the username and password to log in to your TalkTalk
Internet account; that comes later. Click OK.

On the left side click Status, then System Information. On this page
are very, very important figures.

ADSL Status

ADSL Status should be Showtime/Data. That means the link to the
telephone exchange is up and running (but does not mean you have
Internet access because that comes later).

Data Path and Standard

There are various different sorts of ADSL.

If it says "Fast" and "G.dmt" it means you have conventional
broadband with a top speed of 8 megabit and the telephone line from
your house to the exchange is controlled by BT.

If it says "Interleaved" and "RE-ADSL2" it means you have a newer
sort. RE stands for Range Extended and it allows subscribers to be
further away than before. ADSL2 has a higher potential top speed and it
suggests that control of the telephone line from your house to the
exchange has been taken over by TalkTalk; this transfer of control is
called Local Loop Unbundling.

Bandwidth

The Bandwidth
Down/Up (kbps) value again refers to the link
between the MT882 and the telephone exchange. It's not about
the connection to TalkTalk, that is a different thing. Note that the
bandwidth
figure does not refer to data actually sent or received. Nothing has
been sent or received yet. The bandwidth value simply
represents how fast it would work, if there were any data to send or
receive. The bandwidth
value must be more than 0/0. The example value shown 1152/288 means
1152
kilobits per second incoming (download) and 288 kilobits outgoing
(upload). The MT882 can do at least 8 megabit broadband, possibly more.
The actual bandwidth values that you get depend upon various factors
such as distance to the exchange, the capability of the exchange, and
the package you are paying for.

Bandwith is bits, not bytes

Communication speeds
are measured in bits per second. File sizes are measured in bytes.
You must divide bits per second by 8 to get bytes per second. 1152
kilobits per second is equal to 144 kilobytes (KB) per second. Example:
You
have a 1 megabyte (MB) file to download. 1 megabit broadband will take
8 seconds to download it - in theory. In practice it will take longer
because of all the other factors such as network conditions elsewhere.

Download is faster than upload

The receiving speed is faster than the sending. This is because
of the typical web browsing pattern: send a little bit of data (can I
have a web page please); receive a lot (here you are). Broadband
packages are usually sold on the download speed only. If your broadband
is upgraded you will often find that the upload speed remains
the same.

Bandwidth is miserably low?

Unexpectedly low bandwidth figures can be caused by trying to put the
MT882
on the end of a telephone extension. Move the MT882 to the Master
Socket, preferably NTE5. Use a short RJ-11 cable and one
microfilter only, then try again.

Upload is poor?

Check the status figures after the slash. Remember, all the
status figures after the slash mean to the Internet.

SNR Margin

Now look at the crucial SNR Margin Down/Up figure. The scale of
SNR Margin is:

20 or more - excellent12 - good9 - the least that I like to see6 - the minimum for anything to happen at all5.5 - definitely trouble

The first figure is the more important. For example, if it says 8/11
the 8 is the important value because that is downstream (receiving
data). What is
SNR Margin? It is a
measure of the clarity of the telephone exchange. You can't hear
the broadband signal from the telephone exchange on your telephone
handset, but the MT882 can. The higher the bandwidth, the lower the SNR
Margin. The more noise on the
line, the lower the SNR Margin. Too high a bandwidth or too much noise
causes the SNR Margin to fall into the trouble zone and you get all
kinds of unpredictable problems. You must either get rid of the noise
or ask TalkTalk to reduce the bandwidth.

The SNR Margin Down figure is always lower than the Up. This is normal.
It is because ADSL is optimised for receiving, not sending. Remember
there is a tradeoff, more bandwidth comes at the cost of lower SNR.

Low SNR?

Cause: There is too much noise on the line or the broadband speed is
too high.

Fix 1: Try to isolate the noise. Unplug all your phones, plug
the microfilter into the Test Socket inside the NTE5 Master Socket,
change the microfilter, change the RJ-11 cable, use a short RJ-11 cable
not a long one, remove extension leads between the MT882 and the
Master Socket. If the problem persists, it could be caused by a
faulty line, for example, from the telephone pole to your house. If you
don't have the NTE5 Master Socket then you need it, to tell if the
noise is coming from something inside the house (your problem) or
outside (phone company's problem).

Fix 2: You may be on the wrong broadband package. Your line may not
support the broadband speed that has been set by TalkTalk. For example,
one of my customers had 2 megabit broadband from Nildram ISP. The
performance was abysmal (SNR
around 4.5, frequent loss of ADSL sync, download speed like dial-up). I
wrote a postal letter to Nildram requesting a downgrade to 1 megabit,
then asked the customer to sign the letter. As soon as Nildram carried
out the request, the SNR shot up
to 16 and there were no more problems.

Attenuation

Attenuation Down/Up is similar to SNR Margin. Lower is better.
63.5 is the maximum and that is normally only seen if you are a very
long way away from the telephone exchange.

CRC

The next important figure is CRC Down/Up. CRC stands for Cyclic
Redundancy
Check. A small value such as 15/0 is okay, thousands is not. What is
CRC? Imagine me reading you random numbers in groups of ten from a
book. You write down each group of ten numbers, add them up and give
the result back to me. If we agree, then I move on to the next group of
ten numbers. If not, then I have to try again. If there are many errors
much effort will be wasted. High CRC is related to insufficient SNR.

HEC

HEC stands for Header Error Control. It is sanity checking on data
coming in from the telephone exchange. HEC errors are like CRC
errors but not as bad. A HEC error means the MT882 finds a mistake due
to noise but automatically corrects it on the fly. A few HECs are
normal, thousands are not.

Step four: Diagnostic test

Now we need to use the MT882's Diagnostic Test page to triple-check our
ADSL synchronisation. Are you sensing a theme here? :-) On the left
side, click Tools, then Diagnostics, then below Diagnostics, click
Submit. The page will fill in gradually until you should have green
PASS for the first five items. Here our ADSL synchronisation is
confirmed (Testing ADSL line for sync: PASS). ATM stands for
Asynchronous Transfer Mode and OAM stands for Operation and
Maintenance.

You have "Testing ADSL line for sync: Fail"?

What is ADSL synchronisation? You cannot hear the noise that the local
telephone exchange makes on the line, because that noise is removed
by the microfilter, but the MT882 can. Before Internet access can work,
the modem part of the MT882 must link up or "synchronise" with its
partner modem at the telephone exchange. Note that this is
not
the same as Internet access, that is a different thing. ADSL
synchronisation is the prerequisite.

If you have BT line rental - problems with ADSL synchronisation
are controlled by BT, but you as a consumer cannot call BT on the
matter. BT only answers ADSL synchronisation queries to Internet
Service Providers. You must
call TalkTalk, and TalkTalk must phone BT on your behalf. There is no
way around it. If you don't have ADSL synchronisation, and you
unplugged all your phones, and you remembered to also unplug Sky TV
Digital Box, and you have an NTE5 Master Socket, and
you plugged your microfilter into the Test Socket inside the Master
Socket, and you plugged
the RJ-11 cable straight into the microfilter, and you plugged the
other end of the RJ-11 cable straight into the ADSL socket on the
MT882, and you tried another router/modem with the same result, and you
tried another microfilter, and you tried a different RJ-11 cable, you
have to call TalkTalk. :-(

There is nothing you can do to help by fiddling with your computer,
because it's not your computer causing the problem. The problem is to
do with the connection from the MT882 to the telephone exchange.
Most often the problem is caused by forgetting to unplug something
plugged into the phone, for example, I once spent a long time trying to
get ADSL synchronisation with a customer where the problem was being
caused by a Sky TV Digital Box that they had forgotten to tell me about.

You have "Testing ATM OAM segment ping / end to end ping: Fail"?

It may indicate a fault at the telephone exchange. Or, it may be normal
and can be ignored. What? Put succinctly: does the telephone exchange
have older (BT owned and operated) or newer (TalkTalk owned and
operated) equipment in
it? If the former, this error suggests a fault that
needs be taken seriously. If the latter, the error may mean nothing
because
the exchange may not support the ATM OAM test and it is ignored.
Therefore, it is undesirable, but possible, to have
this error and a working Internet connection at the same time.

Step five: PPP login

It's time to log in to your
TalkTalk Broadband account. If this step works then you
will have a working TalkTalk
Broadband connection and then you can browse web pages and set up your
email (hurrah). On the left side, click Basic menu, followed by WAN
Settings. Next to
PVC-0, under Actions, click the little pencil.

The page should look like this. In
Username and Password enter the username and password given in your
welcome letter. Remember the username and password is case-sensitive.
For example, "MYPASSWORD" is different to "mypassword". Check the Caps
Lock key on your keyboard to make sure you're not typing in capitals by
mistake. On laptops, the Num Lock key on causes certain letter keys to
type a number instead of a letter, so make sure Num Lock is off.

Click Submit at the foot of the page. Then click Save All which is on
the
left side. If you forget to click Save All, the MT882 will forget the
changes you have made when its power is turned off.

You will be asked if you are sure you want to save all settings, click
OK.

The changes you made will be saved permanently into the MT882. The
MT882 will then automatically attempt to log into TalkTalk ISP using
Point to Point Protocol (PPP). To find out
if it worked, go to the next step.

Step six: Verify PPP login

Go to the WAN Settings page. You should now have IP Address and Gateway
filled in with numbers beginning with 80-something (not 0.0.0.0), as
shown below. These values are given to the MT882 by TalkTalk ISP. Their
appearance means the broadband connection username and password was
accepted by the other end and the communication between the MT882 and
the ISP is working.
The
LINK light on the MT882 should turn orange which means the PPP
connection is working. You may need to reload the page in the web
browser to see the new IP Address and Gateway. Use the Refresh or
Reload button in the main toolbar at the top of the web browser's
window.

Use the Diagnostic Test again and you should get this. PPPoE isn't used
and does not apply to you. "Authentication with
server" refers to the username and password on your welcome letter.

Once you have a fully successful Diagnostic Test, this means that the
MT882 is correctly set up and working.

Trouble with PPP login

If you did have TalkTalk broadband working, and you have ADSL
synchronisation, but you have PPP login failure, try this. Using
another computer, or a temporary dial-up Internet account from a
provider such as Madasafish,
visit http://supportcentre.talktalk.net/.
Here, log in to the support website using the username and password on
the welcome letter. It should let you in. Then change the password to a
new one of your choice. Log out of the support website, log back in
again to double-check the new password you just made. Put that password
into the MT882, and the PPP login should then work normally. This
happens because the TalkTalk customer records machine is different to
the PPP login server machine. Resetting the password on the former
updates the latter. Sometimes the PPP login server forgets what your
password is supposed to be and following this procedure fixes it.

Instead of the username and password on the welcome letter try
the BT test account: username bt_test@startup_domain
password bt. Sometimes the BT test account is: bt_test_user@startup_domain
password bt. Whether this works depends upon the exchange. If
it does work, it bypasses your TalkTalk account, gives the
MT882 an IP address belonging to BT not TalkTalk and allows you to
browse a single page: http://193.113.211.125/digitaldemo/ also
known as http://www.bt.net/digitaldemo. If the BT test account
works
but the TalkTalk account does not, it means everything at your end is
fine except for: 1) your TalkTalk account such as a billing problem; 2)
the username/password on the welcome letter; or 3) a fault at
TalkTalk's end.

Reset the MT882. On the back there is a hole
which you push a pin
into. This will reset the MT882 back to its factory defaults. If you
have been told that your MT882 is faulty and has to be replaced, try
resetting it. This may clear the problem so it doesn't have to be
replaced, if so then it will be fine after that.

Click Basic menu, followed by WAN Settings.
Next to
PVC-0, under Actions, click the little pencil. Then click the little
magnifying glass at the bottom just above the button "Submit". This
will take you to the "PPP Status" page. Here, look for "Oper. Status",
it should say "Connected". If it says "LCP Failure", what does that
mean? LCP stands for Link Control Protocol and it almost always
indicates a fault at
the BT exchange which TalkTalk must fix from their end. It could also
be that you have a bad MT882 (unlikely) or wrong settings
in the MT882 (very unlikely if you already reset it).

If you know your broadband connect (PPP) username and password is
entered into the MT882 correctly and it doesn't work, TalkTalk's second
line support will change it to something else, such as "talktalk". If
you still get authentication failure even then, try another
router/modem instead of the MT882. If it still doesn't work, something
is wrong with the PPP login server at their end and you need TalkTalk's
second line support to fix it.

Using another router/modem

You may use another router/modem instead of the one provided by
TalkTalk. Use the following settings:

VPI: 0 (Zero)

VCI: 38

Mode: PPPoA

Encapsulation: VC-MUX

MTU 1432 (Important)

WAN IP Address: Dynamic / Automatically assigned by ISP (DHCP)

WAN DNS Servers: Dynamic / Automatically assigned by ISP (DHCP)

Connection requires a login: Yes

Login type: PPP

Authentication type: CHAP

Username / Password: As TalkTalk welcome letter.

You may not need to specify all these settings yourself. With most
UK products, all the settings are preset or automatically detected so
all you have to fill in yourself is the username/password from the
TalkTalk welcome letter. However, take care with the MTU value (1432).
You may need to specify that in yourself. If 1432 doesn't work, try
1400.

Step seven: Verify Internet access on computer

Click Start menu, Run, type cmd, click OK and at the black
screen enter
these commands, pressing Enter at the end of each line. First ping the
assigned IP address given to the MT882:

ping 89.x.x.x

where x.x.x is the "assigned IP address" shown on the diagnostic test
page. Internet IP addresses assigned by TalkTalk begin with 89, the
rest may vary. Then ping the "default gateway" IP address also shown on
the
diagnostic test page. These two steps check that the external interface
(the Internet facing side) of the MT882 is working correctly.

Next, ping
TalkTalk's Domain Name System (DNS) servers:

ping 62.24.128.17
ping 62.24.128.18

Successful replies means the connection from the MT882 to TalkTalk
ISP's internal
systems appears to be working. What is DNS? Every computer on the
Internet is known by its numeric IP address. The Domain Name System
translates human-memorable names to IP addresses. As you can imagine,
the DNS service is rather important. Now try pinging somewhere on the
Internet outside
of TalkTalk, like so:ping 193.195.224.1ping demon.net

The first command tests access
to Demon Internet by its
numeric IP address. The second line tests access to it by its name. In
case
Demon is not available for some reason, try the BBC:

ping 212.58.224.138
ping bbc.co.uk

Given successful replies to the above, you should find that all the
other Internet
functions on your computer
work as normal.

Pinging numeric IP addresses works but pinging names
doesn't?

it means there is
a problem with the "Domain Name Server (DNS) Resolver" that is part of
Windows XP, or a problem with TalkTalk's DNS servers. If
you are able to ping but web browsing doesn't work, there is something
wrong with your web browser eg Internet
Explorer. Fixing Windows XP DNS and web browser problems is beyond this
article. If you are unsure, borrow a friend's laptop that
is known to work and
go to step two above.

Web browsing

Now start a web browser, such as Internet Explorer. A web browser is a
program used for looking at web sites, in the same way as a telescope
is used for looking at far away objects. Internet Explorer, Mozilla
Firefox, Opera, Safari and Konqueror are all examples of web browser
programs. You should now find that the web browser works normally.

You can ping but you can't browse the web?

You might have been cut off because you haven't paid your bill.

Web browsing is miserably slow?

Check the ADSL sync by following step 3 above. "ADSL Loss of Sync"
means the router/modem loses the ADSL connection and has to
re-establish it, causing a delay. Loss of Sync is related to
insufficient SNR.

Some web pages work normally, yet some other web pages take 60
seconds to load?

Change the "Configured MTU" option on the WAN Settings page from
1432 to 1400. This may cure a problem where some web sites load
immediately while other web sites fail to load after a delay of about a
minute. MTU stands for Maximum Transmission Unit, or Most Troublesome
Unit.

Some buttons on some web pages do not work?

Try ADSL Mode G.dmt. This fixes a problem where web pages appear
to load normally but then clicking some buttons on some web pages has
no effect. Recently I sent an email to myself from someone's Outlook
email program, by way of TalkTalk Broadband. I logged into my webmail,
clicked Reply, then clicked Send, and the Send button did nothing. The
Send button was uselessly inoperative, no matter how many times I
clicked it. The Status bar of the web browser remained on "Waiting for
page" and the webmail reply was not sent. I tried another web browser
and a different webmail but the problem was the same. I thought, "This
cannot be." I changed ADSL Mode to G.dmt and the MTU to 1400; the
problem disappeared.

Step eight: Plugging the telephone handsets back in

Once you have Internet access working, it is then safe to start putting
your other telephone equipment back in. Remember, each analogue
telephone device (phone handset,
fax machine, dial-up modem, Sky digital box) must go through a
microfilter when the line has been enabled for broadband. The MT882
itself must
never be filtered. The fewer microfilters the better; no more than 4.
There must not be
anything double-filtered.

One microfilter, many telephones

The recommended way is to have one microfilter plugged directly into
the Master Socket, and the MT882 plugged in via a short RJ-11 cable to
the
ADSL
socket on that microfilter. There can have several phone handsets and
telephone extension leads plugged into the remaining socket on the
microfilter. At the other end of the extension leads, there do not need
to be more microfilters - the extension leads are already filtered.
Keep the MT882 near to the Master Socket and use a short RJ-11
cable. If your computer is a long way from the Master Socket, use a
long Ethernet cable. You can use a long RJ-11 cable if you are
desperate but it is not recommended; far better to use a long Ethernet
cable instead.

One microfilter per telephone

The alternative is to have one microfilter for each analogue device
(phone handset / fax / dial-up modem / Sky TV digital box) you
have. The most you are supposed to have is 4 microfilters per
telephone line. Connect
the MT882 with a short RJ-11 cable - directly to the microfilter on the
Master Socket. Avoid putting the MT882 on the end of a telephone
extension.

Need more than four microfilters?

Dave Spagnol wrote recommending a modified
NTE5 Master Socket with built-in filtering that eliminates the
need to have microfilters scattered throughout a house. His
explanation: "My dad and his wife live in a 3-bed house,
plus a front lobby. They have a phone in every room, no kidding. They
had a
spare socket in the kitchen which is where they set up the MT882.
That's 7
filters in parallel. If that doesn't degrade ADSL I don't know what
will. Anyway I got them the a Linksys WAG54GS wireless router, replaced
the front
of the BT master socket with the "gadget", plugged the Wireless Router
into
it, and got rid of all those microfilters. Suddenly we were in
business!
They'd been nagging CPW for weeks, getting all manner of 'expert'
friends to
have a look, when the answer was that their installation was flawed."

All phones ring at once?

If when plugging in, all phones suddenly start ringing at the same
time, it
means you have exceeded the Ringer Equivalence Number (REN) for your
telephone line. Underneath each telephone or fax machine is a green "BT
Approved" sticker with the REN value, usually 1. If the REN total of
all the telephone handsets, faxes, old-style non-broadband dial-up
computer modems and Sky TV Digital Box(es) exceeds 4 then you might
find that problem.

Step nine: Email

TalkTalk Broadband does not provide a TalkTalk email
address initially. A TalkTalk email address is one that is in the form something@talktalk.net where something is a name of your choice
(described below). However, do you really need an email
address that is specific to TalkTalk? If you do
then you may end up trapped with TalkTalk forever because of needing to
keep that email address.

Use an
alternative provider for your email. Then you are not dependent
upon TalkTalk for your email address. Use TalkTalk for
the basic Internet connection but set up your regular email address
with
another company. When your TalkTalk account
reaches the end of the minimum contract period, you can cancel TalkTalk
Broadband and switch to another broadband provider and still keep on
using your existing email account, no email settings changes required.

Try a third-party webmail service such as Hotmail, Yahoo or Google
Mail. Webmail means you use a web browser such as Internet Explorer to
access a website which sends and receives email messages. The website
also stores the messages you have sent and received. With this method,
TalkTalk provides access to the website - but that website is outside
of
TalkTalk, so you can switch away from TalkTalk and still access the
same website. You can also travel elsewhere and still read
the messages you sent and received.

Better yet, use a
dedicated email service provider such as Virtual Names. Virtual Names
allows you to create a new email address of your choice, such as you@yourname.me.uk.
It costs about £35 for the first year and about £25 for the
second year. The email address is transportable so you can switch to a
different email service provider and still keep the same email address.

On the Virtual Names web page, follow the steps to register a
domain name such as yourname.me.uk. The me.uk suffix
means "UK Individual"; other suffixes are available.

You will be sent a username and password for Virtual Names'
control panel. Click Domains, then create a new mailbox. The mailbox
name is part of the email address before the @ sign, such as you.

To read your new email, use the webmail page on the Virtual Names
website. Optionally, also add the new address to the Accounts settings
in your favourite email client program such as Mozilla SeaMonkey,
Mozilla Thunderbird, Outlook Express, Outlook, Apple Mail, Entourage,
etc. Instructions for doing this are on Virtual Names' website.

With this, the mail servers for sending and receiving are outside of
TalkTalk, but you
still access them via the TalkTalk Internet connection. If you switch
away
from TalkTalk, and reconnect to the Internet through someone else, the
email address and all the other email settings remain unchanged and
continue to work without having to be touched.

Oct 07: An anonymous contributor sent me this comment: "Although
you pointed out that it is a good idea not to rely on talktalk for
e-mail it is probably worth adding what a bag of c$%p their webmail
service is - wtf is going on with poland based servers??"

Now you should have a screen that says "Below is a list of your
connection user names and passwords", followed by the username that you
just entered and the password in asterisks. This is the password is
used for connecting to broadband, not connecting to email, that is a
different thing. At the moment the broadband password exists but the
email password hasn't yet exist, we do that in the next step.

Just to the right of the word "Connection", click Email (circled
above).

Click Add New Email Account.

Now you should be on a page that says "To add a new email address
please complete the form below and click on
'Add'".

Fill in Username with the email name of
your choice, for example, joebloggs to create the TalkTalk email
address joebloggs@talktalk.net.

Enter a password of your choice and again
to confirm it. This is called the POP3 password, or email receive
password. POP3 stands for Post Office Protocol version 3. Note that the
email receive password does not have to be the same as the broadband
connect password. Why? The computer that connects you to the Internet
is different to the one that receives your incoming email. Also, the
security of the broadband connect password isn't very important because
it can only be used from the broadband registered phone number, whereas
the email password is accessible world-wide. So "password" is
acceptable as a broadband connect password, but is not an acceptable
email receive password. Hackers use "guess lists" to break into other
people's email accounts and guess which word is at the top of the list?
To make a better password, think of a song and use the
initials of that, for example, It's a Long Way to Tipperary would be
IaLW2T. If you can have a mixture of capital letters
and numbers so
much the better.

Click Add.

The new TalkTalk email address will be
added to TalkTalk's system, provided someone else isn't already using
that
address.

To verify the address, visit the TalkTalk webmail
address, which is http://webmail.talktalk.net/
and log in to it using the email name and password you just made.

To use the email address with an email client program, use the
following settings given the
example above:

Email address: joebloggs@talktalk.net

POP3 (incoming) mail server: pop3.talktalk.net

POP3 username: joebloggs@talktalk.net

POP3 password: IaLW2T

SMTP (outgoing) mail server:
smtp.talktalk.net

To verify TalkTalk incoming email:

At the "cmd" prompt, enter the following command, including the
spaces, 110 is a number:

This means it worked; you have successfully established a network
connection to the incoming mail (Post Office Protocol) server at
pop3.talktalk.net, on port 110. Port 110 is a channel reserved for the
purpose of receiving POP3 email. Now enter the POP3 commands to log in,
using the above example you would type:

user joebloggs@talktalk.net
pass IaLW2T

If the email username and password is correct you will be
rewarded with:

+OK User successfully logged on.

To see a list of messages waiting in your mailbox, enter list.
To see the contents of message number 1, enter retr 1. To
delete message number 1 so it is removed from the mailbox (it will
never be received onto your computer), type: dele 1. To
disconnect from the POP3 server, use quit. Given the above
works, you should find your email client (Outlook Express, whatever)
works for receiving email. If not, it means there is something wrong at
your end and not with the TalkTalk incoming mail server.

If so, it means the basic communication to TalkTalk's outgoing
mail server on port 25 works. Your email client should be able to send.
You may need to set "Use name and password" or
"SMTP server requires authentication" and enter the same
username/password as for receiving before sending will work.

Step ten: Getting away from TalkTalk

Come on, then. Once bitten, twice shy. In my opinion, it is not
worth economising on your Internet Service Provider (ISP). Get a decent
Internet provider, not the cheapest. Then use that connection to find
some other way to save your pennies.

To switch to another ISP when your TalkTalk contract period is over,
you need to make sure that your email address is not dependent upon
TalkTalk, ie it doesn't end in @talktalk.net. You did that? Good. Now
phone TalkTalk, close your account and ask for a Migration
Authorisation Code (MAC).
With
the authorisation code, contact another ISP and they will be able to
arrange a switchover.

Which to choose? I personally use Demon
for my broadband Internet connection. Demon has been around for a very
long time and is relatively pricey for what you get but I feel that is
a good thing. I have been satisfied with the service from Demon, and so
have my other customers that I have set up on Demon. The billing
department isn't the greatest (I once found they had taken a payment
twice when they were only supposed to take it once) but technically
they do their job. On the thankfully rare occasions I have had to call
them for my other customers, they answered quickly and were helpful.

Postscript: Contacting TalkTalk on the phone

"TalkTalk: Was ever a company less well named?" It seems that
evenings are a better time to call.
First line support has the phone number in the welcome booklet; their
job is to check the basics, such as, did you put all the microfilters
in the right places? If they draw a blank then they give you the number
of the mythical Second Line Support whose number is not published and
changes every 5 days. They close at 10 pm. I have only spoken to
Second Line Support once. The problem did get sorted in the end, but on
the stroke of 10 pm the operator seemed to abandon the call, leaving me
hanging on the phone listening to nothing but
the sound of office workers departing the building (as far as I could
tell).

Update: An anonymous writer sent me this: "I am an employee of TalkTalk
2nd line, the statement on your website wherein you are saying
'...listening to nothing but the sound of him and other office workers
departing the building.' is an outright lie. The situation where an
advisor drops his headset and leaves without logging off from his phone
system is never possible."

Feedback

I wrote this article to help people. Please let me know if it did.

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Phil is a self-employed freelance
computer repairer for
home users. He works in Slough, Windsor, Maidenhead and
Gerrards Cross outside West London, UK. Email: phil {at} pjc.me.uk.
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